Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Abellera calls for disaster measures
DAVAO City Councilor Nilo Abellera urged the local government of Davao City to come up with countermeasures against disasters following the recent earthquake in China.
"Our government must be preventive and precautionary more than being curative and reactionary in dealing with disasters," Abellera said.
"We should begin to actively implement measures to shore up both the physical and institutional safeguards against disasters with particular emphasis being placed on disaster prevention," he added.
As chair of the council committee on peace and public safety, Abellera said the city must focus on research into scientific and technical aspects of disaster prevention, reinforcement of the disaster prevention system and its facilities and equipment, construction of projects designed to enhance the city's ability to defend against disasters as well as for recovery operations and the improvement of information and communications system.
He added that raising public awareness should also be a priority.
"These efforts will surely dramatically reduce the number of people who will die or get injured as a result of natural disasters," Abellera said. (GLP)
